By Yossy Arefi
- Total Time
- About 1½ hours, plus cooling
- Rating
- 4(355)
- Notes
- Read community notes
This stacked shortcake gives a classic summer dessert the large-format (think sheet cake and slab pies) treatment with big tender biscuits layered with juicy berries, and tangy yogurt whipped cream. Use any seasonal berries you like, but if you’d like to use strawberries, hull and cut them into halves if they are small or quarters if they are large. (Note that the juiciest summer berries won’t need as much sugar. If the berries leave juices on your hands when you handle them, cut the sugar in the berry mixture to 1 tablespoon.)
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Ingredients
Yield:One 9-inch cake
- 3cups/385 grams all-purpose flour
- 3tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1tablespoon baking powder
- ½teaspoon baking soda
- 1teaspoon kosher salt
- ½cup/120 milliliters buttermilk, chilled
- ½cup/120 milliliters heavy cream, chilled
- 1large egg, cold
- 8tablespoons/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), cold and cut into ½-inch pieces
- 2teaspoons turbinado sugar
- About 5 cups/700 grams mixed summer berries
- 1 to 2tablespoons granulated sugar (for ripe summer or store-bought berries, respectively)
- 1tablespoon lemon juice
- ½teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½cup/120 milliliters Greek yogurt
- ¼cup/30 grams confectioners' sugar (unsifted)
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 1½cups/360 milliliters heavy cream
For the Shortcakes
For the Berries
For the Cream
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Trace an 8-inch circle onto two pieces of parchment paper. Line two baking sheets with the paper, writing-side down.
Step
2
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together buttermilk, cream and egg in a liquid measuring cup.
Step
3
Use a pastry cutter or your fingers to cut the butter into the flour mixture until it is the size of small peas. Make a well in the center and pour in the liquid. Stir the mixture together until just combined, then use your hands to knead it a few times until the dough comes together. It will be the texture of thick cookie dough.
Step
4
Divide the dough into two equal pieces, place each onto one of the prepared baking sheets and use lightly damp hands to press it into a circle just inside the traced line. (Do your best to pat the tops flat while keeping the edges perpendicular to the pan.) Chill the dough on the baking sheets in the refrigerator until firm, about 15 minutes (dough can be chilled up to 4 hours). Just before baking, sprinkle each round with 1 teaspoon turbinado sugar.
Step
5
Bake the shortcakes until golden and cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the pans from front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Cool completely.
Step
6
While the shortcakes are cooling, macerate the berries and make the cream: Add berries, sugar, lemon and vanilla to a large bowl. Use a fork to gently mash up to ¼ cup of the berries. (This doesn’t have to be exact, but you want to create a little bit of liquid if your berries aren’t naturally super juicy.) Stir gently to combine and let sit for about 30 minutes.
Step
7
For the cream, add the yogurt, sugar, vanilla and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix on medium speed until combined. Add the heavy cream, and whip until very firm peaks form. (You can complete the shortcakes, cream and berries up to 4 hours in advance, refrigerating the cream and berries until ready to serve.)
Step
8
To serve, place one of the cooled shortcakes on a serving plate. Top with half of the cream followed by half the berries. (Don’t spread the cream quite to the edges, as it will spread when you add the other shortcake.) Repeat with the remaining shortcake, cream and berries. If there is a lot of extra berry juice left in the bowl, serve it alongside the cake.
Step
9
Slice the cake with a long serrated knife and serve. The shortcake can be layered up to about 1 hour in advance and stored in the fridge. It will soften as it sits.
Ratings
4
out of 5
355
user ratings
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Cooking Notes
I have learned that one can pop sugared berries into the microwave for about 20-30 seconds and achieve the kind of maceration that can take an hour or more. They're like berries picked in the field on a warm summer day, warmed by the sun!
Nadina Cole-Potter
In regard to all the summer fruit dessert recipes -- if the fruit is ripe, you can cut up and cook it quickly in the microwave with a bit of concentrated apple juice, roast or grill it and refrigerate or freeze for later, or cut up and freezi in pieces to use in salsas and salads. Process in your food processor and freeze it in ice cube trays and use for smoothees with greek yogurt and coconut milk. No need to adulterate with sugar and white flour.
Andee
Next time I will make the cake layers MUCH thinner and I will whip the cream stiffer. Otherwise, delish.
Dawning Hope
Had no Greek yogurt but subbed skyr, moistened with a little of the heavy cream— gave the final cream a heavenly tang. Used my handheld electric mixer for cream - worked splendidly.Cakes rose to 3/4 inches. I assembled as 2 separate shortcakes, instead of stacking— cutting through stacks seems ill-conceived. Why struggle to slice without with cream and fruit gooshing out the edges. Although several individual-serving size cakes, in stacks of twos, might be lovely...
Lynda H.
Plain Greek yogurt. The cream recipe also includes confectioners' sugar, for sweetness. Yogurt (or creme fraiche or sour cream) helps the cream to keep its shape and to not separate. It also adds a layer of flavor.
Stacey A.
Can't wait to make this! I think subbing out some of the flour with oats lightly pulsed in the food processor and maybe some almonds, would add even more layers of flavors. Kind of monster scones. Yum!
Sharanya
Halved the recipe, but still made 2 layers. Subbed 1 cup and 6 tbsp whole wheat flour for white, and used the full egg. Delicious with a cup of Earl Grey! Next time I would not macerate the berries as the juices ended up running down the cake and ruining the look -- still tasted great though.
Del'Esa Lee
Will definitely make the cakes thinner next time, they rose so I had to slice the top off the bottom cake to evenly spread the cream. Excellent recipe!
joyful
Made this for an end of summer cookout. It looked beautiful and everyone loved it. Will definitely make again.
Ingrid
looks a little tall for a shortcake
Ed
- Replace the shortcake with GF Almond cake- Use creme fresh instead of yogurt and add lemon zest to the cream.
Sam C
I made this for a crowed so rather than stacking, I made the short cake as a sheet and then topped with the cream and berries and cut into squares to serve. Honestly, didn’t love the cream and think a traditional vanilla whipped cream (without yogurt) would have been better and I will do it that way next time. Also, didn’t follow other reviewers suggestions to double the cream but wish I had!
Tom
The volume of cake overwhelmed the dish. Next time I will half the cake recipe.
Debbie
July 2021. Made half a recipe (5 1/2 inch circles). Strawberry/ blueberryBaked 21 minutes. I think that was too long for the half recipe. Very tasty whipped cream. But it squished out when cutting. Maybe better to make small individual shortcakes? Or cut a layer in half to make the 2 layers? Maybe wouldn’t squish so much because not cutting through so much crust. Need a number of people to eat a full recipe.Very tasty. Worth working on it.
Sun Morning
I've found that you can end up with cream in the yoghurt if you aren't careful. Other than that, great recipe!
NB
So so delicious and very easy. Thanks to other commenters, I halved the cake amount and that was perfect.
Sharanya
Halved the recipe, but still made 2 layers. Subbed 1 cup and 6 tbsp whole wheat flour for white, and used the full egg. Delicious with a cup of Earl Grey! Next time I would not macerate the berries as the juices ended up running down the cake and ruining the look -- still tasted great though.
Del'Esa Lee
Will definitely make the cakes thinner next time, they rose so I had to slice the top off the bottom cake to evenly spread the cream. Excellent recipe!
Rolnrn
Has anyone tried splitting the cake layers horizontally for 4 layers?
Andee
Next time I will make the cake layers MUCH thinner and I will whip the cream stiffer. Otherwise, delish.
Maureen
Can you make the short cakes a couple of days ahead?
Dawning Hope
Had no Greek yogurt but subbed skyr, moistened with a little of the heavy cream— gave the final cream a heavenly tang. Used my handheld electric mixer for cream - worked splendidly.Cakes rose to 3/4 inches. I assembled as 2 separate shortcakes, instead of stacking— cutting through stacks seems ill-conceived. Why struggle to slice without with cream and fruit gooshing out the edges. Although several individual-serving size cakes, in stacks of twos, might be lovely...
Stacey A.
Can't wait to make this! I think subbing out some of the flour with oats lightly pulsed in the food processor and maybe some almonds, would add even more layers of flavors. Kind of monster scones. Yum!
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